Hook needs to let it go

As a regular reader and regular hiker, walker, runner on the Rivanna Trails, I ask you to stop writing about the razor wire/private property issue [Cover story, "Slashed: Presley's razor wire claims collateral damage," December 9, 2004]. You are making a mountain out of a trailhead.

And unfortunately, due to your sensationalized articles, you have demonized a respectable Charlottesville citizen and cultivated distaste for the Rivanna Trails Foundation.

The RTF, which built and maintains the trails, has accepted the rights of Shirley Presley to keep her private property private. The group has apologized for its honest mistake in constructing the trail over her property and built a detour.

Presley has done nothing but live in her house and property as she has for years. And when others illegally used her lands (inspired by your articles), she has contacted and followed the law, not become an irate vigilante as one may think from your articles.

The Hook has done nothing to mend the situation it writes about. It misrepresents the big picture by dramatizing feature articles. And last week, it staged a faked cover photo. What truth could be gained by false press?